Hyundai, State Violence, and Peasant Resistance in Colombia

By Seoulidarity

In the Latin American country Colombia, peasants and activists are regularly threatened, arrested, and killed by the Colombian army and pro-government “paramilitaries”.  It has been revealed that South Korean corporation Hyundai has contributed to this oppression.
Andres Gil and Miguel Gonzalez, of the Peasant-Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC), are two of the most recent victims of the Colombian government’s repression. The ACVC is a grassroots organization that organizes cooperatives and community-based development projects, defends human rights, and fights for the right of peasants to stay on their land.

Miguel Gonzalez (green shirt), ACVC peasant leader and political
prisoner in Colombia. Miguel Angel Gonzalez (white shirt), son of Miguel
Gonzalez, killed by the Colombian Army in January 2008.

The Colombian army and paramilitaries have ruthlessly attacked the ACVC since it was founded twelve years ago. In just the past two years, more than fourteen civilians were killed by the Colombian Army in the Cimitarra River Valley. Since September 2007, the Colombian government has arrested six leaders of the ACVC, falsely accusing them of supporting the left-wing guerrillas. Although four of the arrested leaders were eventually released, Andres Gil and Miguel Gonzalez remain in prison. Eight days after Miguel Gonzalez was arrested, his 23 year-old son, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, a father of two, was murdered by the Colombian Army.

Miguel Angel Gonzalez, son of ACVC peasant leader and political prisoner Miguel Gonzalez. Miguel Angel Gonzalez was murdered by the Colombian Army in January 2008.

War on social movements

 Why does the Colombian government attack people like Miguel and Andres?  Since the early 1960s, a civil war has pitted left wing guerrilla groups against the US-funded Colombian army. In the name of waging a war on terror, the government aims to destroy social movements like the ACVC. By doing so, they hope to clear the way for multinational corporations and local business interests to profitably exploit Colombia’s rich land and natural resources.
Beginning in the early 1980s, the army has relied on right wing paramilitary groups to carry out their dirty work. The paramilitaries have killed, tortured, or forcibly displaced thousands of political activists, unionists, peasants, and indigenous people.

Fake paramilitary demobilization

When the paramilitary armies had outlived their usefulness to the Colombian state, a “peace process” was launched in 2003. The largest paramilitary group “negotiated” their demobilization with their sponsors and allies in the Colombian government, led by right-wing President Alvaro Uribe. The real goal of the supposed demobilization was to give the paramilitaries  impunity for their crimes, while obscuring the responsibility of Colombian elites for paramilitary violence.
After a souring of relations between paramilitary and government leaders, paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso revealed on television some of the vast support his army has received from Colombian politicians, military commanders, and businesses. Within twenty-four hours, President Uribe extradited Mancuso and thirteen other paramilitary commanders to the United States.
Mancuso and his friends now spend their days in solitary confinement in the United States, with no access to the press. Yet because the politicians, military commanders, and multinational corporations that created paramilitarism were never held accountable for their crimes,  paramilitary power has changed form rather than disappear. The Colombian NGO Indepaz estimates that there are now at least 9,000 paramilitary soldiers across Colombia. The “Black Eagles” paramilitaries and others have continued to lead the Colombian state’s “dirty war”. In June of this year, the ACVC and other human rights groups in the same region were threatened and ordered to leave the region by the Black Eagles.
 The Colombian army has also begun to directly carry out the killings that it used to “contract out” to paramilitaries.  Like Miguel Angel Gonzalez, son of the ACVC leader Miguel Gonzalez, many of those murdered are claimed to be guerrillas killed “in combat.”  According to the "Colombia-Europe- United States Coalition", a coalition of 117 Colombian human rights groups, 955 of these "combat killings" of civilians were committed between July 2002 and June 2007.

Multinationals share the responsibility—and so does Hyundai

Multinational companies, including Hyundai, have benefited from the "stability" that the paramilitaries violently enforce in regions under their control. On May 18th, 2007, Mancuso said in public hearings that former paramilitary leader Carlos Castano met directly with Carlos Mattos, representative of Hyundai in Colombia. According to Mancuso, Castano first demanded a helicopter from Hyundai, and then accepted four automobiles per year instead. Hyundai has admitted giving a total of four taxis. Because the paramilitaries are especially strong in urban areas, where they can be more easily protected by the police and army, taxis are essential tools of paramilitary control. Taxis are used for transportation, for spying and intelligence networks, and to directly carry out attacks. Activists have been pushed at gunpoint into taxis and kidnapped, or assassinated by paramilitaries driving taxis. Hyundai’s donation directly supported the same paramilitary army that has killed and threatened members of the ACVC, as well as countless other Colombian human rights activists. No one in Hyundai has been held responsible for their actions.
 In numerous documented cases, paramilitaries have been used by multinational corporations to push farmers off their land or to suppress unions. Colombia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to participate in union activities. In the first half of 2008, 31 trade unionists were assassinated. Since 1989, eight Coca-Cola union activists have been killed, leading workers and supporters to call for a boycott of Coke products (http://www.killercoke.org). Mancuso has described the financial support given to the paramilitaries by the U.S. banana companies Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita. Chiquita has admitted paying almost 1.7 million dollars to the paramilitaries.

Truth, Justice, and Full Reparations

While Andres Gil and Miguel Gonzalez should be released from prison, much more needs to be done. Colombian human rights groups demand that the Colombian government truly dismantle the paramilitary groups and end military violence against civilians. They demand that full reparations be given to victims of state violence, and that those who have been forced off their land be allowed to return to their homes and farms. The full truth about paramilitarism and state violence needs to be told in order to ensure that these crimes are never repeated. Those responsible for funding and promoting the paramilitaries, including corporations like Coca-Cola and Hyundai, need to brought to justice. Only then will the ACVC be able to safely organize for justice for the Cimitarra River Valley’s farmers.

-Seoulidarity Radical Language Exchange
(www.seoulidarity.net)

See also:
- News reports on Hyundai’s donation of taxis
http://www.elcomercio.com/noticiaEC.asp?id_noticia=111513&id_seccion=5
- On the ACVC
http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article1236
http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article698
- On recent events in Colombia:
http://www.counterpunch.org/brittain08192008.html

To demand freedom for leaders of the ACVC, please send short emails, with the  heading “Libertad para los lideres de la ACVC” in English or Spanish:

President of the Republic of Colombia
Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, President of the Republic of Colombia
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Fax: 57 1 566 2071

Vicepresident of the Republic of Colombia
Dr. Francisco Santos, Vicepresident of the Republic of Colombia
E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co; buzon1@presidencia.gov.co

Presidential Program for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Rights  
Dr. Carlos Franco, Director
E-mail: cefaro@presidencia.gov.co

Fiscalía General (Attorney General)
Dr. Mario Hernán Iguarán Arana. Fiscal General de la Nación
E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co; denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co

Defensoría Nacional (Ombudman)
Dr. Volmar Pérez Ortiz. Defensor Nacional del Pueblo
Telephone: 314 73 00
E-mail: defensoria@defensoria.org.